All tracked objects in Earth orbit, NASA February 2024

South Star Program · Development Roadmap

How we get from
concept to capture

South Star PROX-M18 is an RPODU unit in development. This is the honest path from research to a flight demonstrator, with nothing skipped and nothing oversold.

Where We Are

An early-stage program, stated plainly

Space Waste is developing South Star PROX-M18, a Rendezvous, Proximity Operations, Docking & Undocking (RPODU) unit. Today the work is research, software, and simulation. No hardware has flown. Nothing on this page is operational, scheduled, or for sale.

What follows is the route we intend to take, broken into phases tied to technology readiness levels (TRL). Each phase has to earn the next one. We would rather show a slow, real roadmap than a fast, fictional one.

READ THIS FIRST: Horizons below are planning targets for an early-stage program, measured from the start of funded development, not calendar dates or committed mission schedules. Later phases depend on funding, a launch opportunity, and regulatory clearance. We will update this page as reality does.
The Phases
PHASE 0

Concept & research

In progress

TRL 1–2 · Horizon: now

Define the South Star PROX-M18 concept of operations and the terminal-phase approach problem it has to solve. Sensor and architecture trade studies. Publish what we learn as open research, see the research library. This is the groundwork everything else stands on.

PHASE 1

Software & simulation

In progress

TRL 2–3 · Horizon: 0–12 months

Build the six-degree-of-freedom relative-navigation logic in simulation and a pose-estimation pipeline that works on synthetic and recorded imagery of tumbling, non-cooperative targets. The public RPODU Simulator is a sandbox for the approach logic, not flight code, but it keeps the problem honest and visible.

PHASE 2

Ground demonstrator

Planned

TRL 3–4 · Horizon: 12–30 months

Move from screen to bench. A hardware-in-the-loop testbed: air-bearing or robotic-arm proximity operations against a mock target, with a breadboard sensor suite running the Phase 1 navigation. This is where simulation meets friction, latency, and noise, and where most assumptions get corrected.

PHASE 3

Subsystem qualification

Planned

TRL 4–5 · Horizon: 24–48 months

Take the subsystems that survived the bench toward space-worthiness: thermal-vacuum and vibration testing, a capture-interface prototype, and validation of the deorbit-decision software. Nothing flies until it has been proven on the ground first.

PHASE 4

Flight demonstrator

Target

TRL 6+ · Horizon: funding & partner dependent

A single-target on-orbit demonstration of the terminal-phase approach. This is a target, not a scheduled mission. It depends on funding, a launch opportunity, and regulatory clearance, and we will not claim a date until one is real.

WHAT WE WILL NOT CLAIM: that PROX-M18 has flown, that it is operational, or that it is available to buy. When that changes, this page changes with it, with evidence.
Our Goals → PROX-M18 Specs → Research Library →

SW-RM-001 · South Star Development Roadmap · Rev A · Planning document, subject to change